LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform

This morning LinkedIn sent out an email regarding their newest “test” platform, publishing. 

“We're offering our members a powerful new way to build their professional brand — publishing on LinkedIn. When a member publishes a post on LinkedIn, their original content becomes part of their professional profile, is shared with their trusted network, and has the ability to reach the world's largest group of professionals. “

From what I can gather, this is more of an archive, so that you are able to access more than just your last ten posts.  Additionally, it is long-form format so you can say even more.  The feature is still in the testing phase and LinkedIn is asking people to sign up initially.  Just for fun, I did so. However, I am reluctant and think this might be a short lived addition to the Linked In menu.  Blogs provide the same features and it is just as easy to post a link from your blog as it is to provide content directly to Linked In. 

What do you think?  Useful feature?

Learn more about the platform and how to apply for early access here.

LinkedIn Gets a Little Facebook-y

I have been monitoring my LinkedIn status views and engagement to try to establish trends.  First, we have heard it from many Social Media experts already, but posts with photos get a lot more action.

Something else I noticed was posts that are more personal and less about business have been getting a lot of traction. Granted LinkedIn is thought to be more of a B2B platform, it seems that people are still excited about content that has nothing to do with business.

Here are my most popular posts from the last couple weeks.  What are your thoughts and most popular posts?

Published Article

Making the Most Out of Your Biz After Biz Sponsorship

Filed on 04. Nov, 2013

By Amanda Brock
Courtesy to The Whatcom Report, Special Edition to The Bellingham Business Journal

 

Click here for article.  Page 14 & 16.

Social Media Conference Recap (Engagement)

This year I attended the IN-NW Conference in Seattle which focused on the latest trends in Social Media.  Representatives from big-name corporations like Coco-Cola, Starbucks, and EA Sports discussed what they are doing in the marketplace.  The room was packed with over 200 attendees clambering to find guidance in a topic that is evolving daily.

Unfortunately, like most Social Media presentations, the theory is that the campaigns are successful but there is nothing necessarily measurable to support it.  When you are striving for management buy-in, results are essential.  The suggestion was to not focus on the numbers as much as the response rates.  For example, instead of reporting that you have 400 likes on Facebook, reporting that you had 15 shares on a post indicate better results.  The effectiveness is shown by the ability to leverage Social Media to increase connectivity and inspire your online community to take action in sharing your content. 

To achieve the response rate, several speakers agreed that it is the proactive and personal approach that engages the community the most.  Brands must have a relatable “face” to create two-way communication and increase the probability that your audience will help guide your content.  By tracking the posts that are responded to or created organically by your audience, you can refine your message to speak to what is important and relevant to them.  This could be current events, charitable efforts, or an inside view of the company and staff. 

One of the best quotes of the event was “personalization breeds passion.” By tailoring your content to be more personal, people are hypothetically more willing to follow and contribute.

Engagement was just one of the discussions.  More to come….